In this way, tea farmers, tea sellers, small tea merchants, large tea merchants in tea-producing areas, tea houses in distribution centers, wholesalers in target areas, and retailers in target areas form a complete business chain.

It should be noted here that the magic capital is just a big port where the goods from the north and south and the east and west converge together (the scale of trade may be much larger than Suzhou), so there are many tea merchants who sell tea here, so that there are many tea houses and warehouses, resulting in very rich tea resources here, and the price is quite low, which is traditionally one of the distribution centers for tea, and the British come here to buy tea, which is the right place.

From this business chain, the British captain who came to buy tea was a wholesaler, and he had to ship the tea back to China and wholesale it to the retailers in his country.

In this way, the next thing Zhao Dagui has to do is to find a reliable tea shop, obtain the tea leaves, and then sell them to the captain at the right price to get the profit he deserves.

Here, I would like to focus on the tea house, a business model that modern people do not understand.

According to Zhao Dagui's understanding, the origin of the tea house should be that the large tea merchant ship in the tea-producing area transported a large amount of tea, and then found a large inn to stay in the local area, and the tea was also stored in the inn's warehouse by the way;

Then, the big tea merchant found that he was not familiar with the place here, so he entrusted the innkeeper to sell the tea on his behalf, and paid him an agency fee, and then there were many such things, and a complete business model was formed, and every time he came over, he stayed and sold tea in a fixed inn.

In fact, when Zhao Dagui came to this world, the first thing he did was to ask the innkeeper about the situation, and even buy his clothes, and ask the hotel guy to help contact the Yao family.

The local tea house is also called Jiubaxing, normally speaking, it is only an agency fee of 2% of the total price of tea after helping tea merchants sell tea, but in fact, there are many ways to make money in the middle, and the fees charged are far above this:

Tea merchants are not familiar with the local people, and the tea house has to help the tea merchant file taxes, yamen bad rules and broken box fees, etc., which is about 10% or more of the tea price, and the tea house can report more and pay less in the middle;

Tea houses are equipped with warehouses, hostels, etc., if the tea merchant needs capital turnover, he can use the inventory to mortgage the loan, etc., which is usually convenient for the tea merchant's operation, but sometimes it will also form extortion and oppression;

Tea merchants can ask the tea house to deal with anything in the local area, such as offending the government and gang figures, but they also have to pay a certain fee.

In fact, the tea house model was very common in the magic capital and even in various ports of the Qing Dynasty, and it was not limited to tea as a commodity.

Even there are many warehouses in the magic capital, and the business model is also the model of the tea house, but the tea is called the tea house, the raw silk is called the silk stack, and the grain is called the grain stack, etc., some warehouses only operate one or two goods, and some warehouses may operate many types, and so on.

In fact, after Zhao Dagui had a deeper understanding of the world, he felt that he had laughed at Yao Shuping and Master Yao for not knowing what he could do, and wanted to swallow all the goods of the British in one go and monopolize all Sino-British trade, and that kind of criticism may not be accurate.

To put it more clearly, that Mr. Yao may be one of the owners of this kind of warehouse, and when he encounters the British coming to the magic capital, he asks the British to store the goods in his own warehouse based on the sensitivity of the businessman, and then helps the British to sell the goods as an agent, which is actually a very common local business practice.

After the British refused the agent request, Mr. Yao immediately turned to a place to provide accommodation, which can be seen from this point that Mr. Yao wanted to do just a normal business of the store.

However, perhaps because of translation problems or cultural differences, the British thought that the other party wanted to monopolize all their trade, so they were eager to refuse, and then because Chinese often came into the courtyard to watch them and felt offended, it made Old Master Yao's plan to make a fortune come to naught.

Thinking of this, Zhao Dagui felt very lucky, if it wasn't for Master Yao who was out early, then there would be nothing to do with himself.

According to Zhao Dagui's understanding, his next step is to visit a local tea house with a good reputation and buy high-quality tea for the captain.

This step is not difficult, Zhao Dagui is not in vain these days, he has already inquired with the hotel shopkeeper and some businessmen, there are many local tea houses, among which there are six with a large scale and good reputation, which can provide thousands of tons of tea, and they are also very well-behaved in business, and will not deceive guests.

Thinking that he has the backing of the British behind him (this is really awkward), some underworld methods and government blackmail that cannot be put on the table (Zhao Dagui imagined), should allow Consul Bafur to negotiate with Lord Daotai to settle it, as long as he focuses on the normal business content, that is, do not spend high prices to buy defective goods and the like, Zhao Dagui couldn't help but be bold, raised his legs and walked into the legendary Li Family Tea House, the largest in the local area and the best reputation.

Thanks to Zhao Dagui, the clothes he wore this time were good, not necessarily decent, but at least they could be seen to be very valuable, worth dozens of taels of silver, and after going in to talk to the guys, he was soon led to see the shopkeeper in charge of business.

"I don't know what this old man is called, what's the matter with this number?" The shopkeeper was a middle-aged man in his forties who looked very capable, and after looking Zhao Dagui up and down, he asked.

"My surname is Zhao, from Qinzhou, Guangdong, and I came to the demon to buy some tea and go back.

By the way, this shopkeeper, I don't know what your surname is?" Zhao Dagui asked as calmly as possible, after all, it is not easy to put out a spectrum that can do tens of thousands of yuan in business.

"The contemptible person's surname is Lu, and the owner of the loss number is heavy, and he eats with a mouthful of food, so you can call me the shopkeeper Lu.

I don't know what kind of tea does Master Zhao want to buy this time, and how much do you want to buy?" asked Shopkeeper Lu politely.

"I don't know much about tea, but I have a friend who deals in tea and asked me to buy some tea for him.

It's just that I am self-aware, not very familiar with tea, and I am afraid that if I find a tea number casually, I will be shoddy, and even use some unknown means to make my friends lose money, which is not good.

I inquired for a long time in the magic capital, and they all said that the Li family tea house has been established for a long time, and it is the most fair to do things, and will never deceive people, and I hope that the shopkeeper Lu will help me a lot, so that I can buy good tea and fulfill my friend's request. ”

"Hehe, Master Zhao is polite, this number is the most important thing to do business, and it will never mess up the rules, Master Zhao can rest assured. ”

The two exchanged pleasantries, and the kind words poured out as if they didn't want money.

When they met for the first time, Zhao Dagui had a good impression of this Lu shopkeeper, he was kind and paid attention to his words, but he had practiced this kung fu all his life, and whether he would hide a knife in his smile and assassinate him still needs to be investigated.